The Heartbreak of Not Being Able to Commit to Every Club All the Time

Do you remember the involvement fair, the big event on the day before school that feels like it happened three months ago? If you went there and went there earnestly you may recall having the feeling of a being kid in a candy store, a candy store that goes on and on for the greater part of a mile and instead of jellybeans has three trees worth of fliers for you. “Look at all this opportunity!”, you might have exclaimed back then, while raising your hands in the air and skipping down College Avenue. So you signed up for everything. RU Unplugged and RU Bodybuilding. The Medieval Club and Knight Time Productions. Fencing, ultimate frisbee, meditation, culinary appreciation, beewatching, squirrel-feeding, and tennis. Sign up for both IVMEF and the Hillel newsletters, just to be safe. Express interest in all the frats and sororities, just to be safe.

So now you are beyond involved in Rutgers, like even Henry Rutgers had nothing on you. But if every beat of this post has resonated with you so far, especially the part about yelping down College Avenue with your hands in the air, by now you might have contracted a lurking sickness that tends to come out of latency whenever you look at your calendar. It’s formally referred to as “Holy crap I have no time to do any work and it’s been like six months since I just, like, sat down!itis”. So what is the cure?

1: Cut a club from your life.

This is why this post needed the word “heartbreak” in the title. Some clubs are a lot of fun, but require a greater time investment that you were prepared for. Perhaps the leadership has asked you to complete group projects in between each meeting. The funny thing about these informal assignments is that they often feel more pressing than academic assignments, you know, those things that actually have real bearing on your future, because you don’t want to let down your friends at the club. Please, don’t keep yourself anywhere out of a sense of guilt.

2: Clubs with benefits.

Most clubs that aren’t sports or performing arts don’t expect every single person to show up religiously. If you like to watch movies, play games, or do Yoga, but it’s just not you to do these things every week, feel free to drop in and drop out if that’s OK with the people there. The plus side of being somewhat involved in several clubs is that you give yourself more opportunies to branch out socially.

3: Make stronger commitments to clubs and organizations you really like.

Just because you free up some time on your schedule doesn’t mean you have to replace it with nothing! If you have enough time for the immutable studies, personal habits, and social commitments, maybe commit to partaking consistently in the one or two organizations you really like. Attend most of the meetings and events, try to get to know a lot of the people there. There is joy in focusing on the things that are most important to you. And who knows, if you are involved in an organization often enough, you might just make president one day; every young person should dream of it like they used to.